Got the Car fixed

[Shaggy]

Well, nearly, almost.

Few things that were going wrong, which were all being caused by one issue.

1. The sound on the radio had stopped working. the Radio would work, The CD player, the SAT Nav and the T.V. just no sound. Been trying to figure it out for a month or so.

2. Then the alarm failed. Would keep going off when i opened a door. I and one Audi garage put it down to the battery failing in the remote, then the remote being out of sync with the alarm.

3. Ciggi lighter did not work. Although i dont smoke in the car (much) I do forget a lighter every now and again. Pressed the car lighter in a few weeks back and its not popped back out yet.

Problem diagnosed today. The rear window wiper, which had been intermintantly working and then not working had a small leak in it. Over the cause of 3 months the leaked water was running in the car and into the "Comfort ECU" the bit that controls the bits above. The water has damaged part of this ECU.

Fix will be carried out on the 16th. WAIT FOR IT..... £520

[Tanner_J]

Thank God!

[RingwaySam]

£520 for that?! Well garages won't be experiencing the credit crunch with them prices...

[brianw999]

I can sympathise.

My second hand Renault Laguna only came with one key.

£160 for a new key !!!! ....and it's not even one of the new credit card type.

[Shaggy]

Rip Off!!!

They have you my the round things though unless your mechancic.

[brianw999]

A tip for the owners of French cars. There are businesses on the south coast of England who can arrange for the more expensive work such as ECU unit replacement etc. to be done in France at around half the price. They'll arrange your ferries, you can have a day out over the channel with a loan car for the day and it will all cost very little more than the ripoff UK charges. Ideal for a booze cruise.

[turbotraker]

Fix will be carried out on the 16th. WAIT FOR IT..... £520

That's why I am changing my job to the motor trade....

Thank fk you are going to sort it, how on earth you managed to sleep at night without a fully working alarm/immob, I will never know!!

[JordanD]

I don't get the hype around "German Engineering" when things like this seem to go wrong so often on their cars. It's not like those are new innovative features that they still have to work the kinks out of.

[ASpilot2be]

I don't get the hype around "German Engineering" when things like this seem to go wrong so often on their cars. It's not like those are new innovative features that they still have to work the kinks out of.

Agreed. We dont own any German vehicles, but the ship my Dad is based on has German engines and they give them serious headaches. When the engines were one year old one of the four had to be replaced, and getting an engine from Germany to Alaska is not cheap. Now the coolant they were told to put in the engines ate away at the engine linings and soon all the engines will have to be replaced.

Should have gone with Caterpillar

[brianw999]

Not too certain which model of Mercedes was concerned, it may have been the 300 SLK, but Mercedes were getting so many complaints about irritating electrical failures that they disabled or removed over 1,000 electrical activities / items.

No-one noticed the difference !!!

[TheRealAncientMarine]

Agreed. We dont own any German vehicles, but the ship my Dad is based on has German engines and they give them serious headaches. When the engines were one year old one of the four had to be replaced, and getting an engine from Germany to Alaska is not cheap. Now the coolant they were told to put in the engines ate away at the engine linings and soon all the engines will have to be replaced.

Should have gone with Caterpillar

If you screw up a German, or any other nationality marine diesel engine in one year you have no f*cking clue. That ship is in serious need of new, capable engineers. Caterpillars are for shore use where you can call service 24x7.
Per

[Shaggy]

TBH, regarding German Engineering, its very good, well concerning my car. The engine in my car is one of the best engines there has ever been.

The cause of the problem was a loose hose in the rear window washer system, which I agree is shoddy, but something I should have spotted

My issue is that they can charge £500 for a control circuit no bigger than a matchbox

[avro_arrow_25206]

I don't get the hype around "German Engineering" when things like this seem to go wrong so often on their cars. It's not like those are new innovative features that they still have to work the kinks out of.

To be fair, good engineering doesn't always equal good quality. You can have a great design, but the end product will still be crap if the circuits aren't welded properly etc.

[JordanD]

To be fair, good engineering doesn't always equal good quality. You can have a great design, but the end product will still be crap if the circuits aren't welded properly etc.

Oh I know. The Germans make some great cars as far as performance and handling, but if they can manage all of that I don't see why can't weld circuits together properly. It's a shame since there's several German cars I'd really love to own, I just don't want to fork out insane amounts of money to keep them running because of small quality problems that a Japanese car that's half the price don't have. I know complexity is an issue (more features, more problems), but Lexus and Acura seem to do ok quality wise.

[ASpilot2be]

If you screw up a German, or any other nationality marine diesel engine in one year you have no f*cking clue. That ship is in serious need of new, capable engineers. Caterpillars are for shore use where you can call service 24x7.
Per

The first major problems came from flaws in the metal. The second one came from following directions from the manufacturer.

I dont blame the crew for either problem. Maybe we just got a bad apple out of the bunch. Obviously people have been having good luck with the MTUs around the world.